FCC Prepares 1695-1710, 1755-1780 MHz Spectrum for Auction in 2014

The FCC informed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of its plans to auction licenses in the 1695-1710 and 1755-1780 MHz bands as early as September 2014.

The NTIA recently picked out the 1695-1710 MHz band of spectrum to be reallocated for non-federal use.

In a statement, Commissioner Ajit Pai advocated offering up the whole swath of spectrum for commercial use.

“I continue to believe that we should aim to clear and reallocate the 1755–1780 MHz band rather than forcing federal users and commercial operators to undertake the complicated, untested task of spectrum sharing,” Pai said.

The 1755-1780 MHz band has been spied as a good pairing with the 2155-2180 MHz band, another chunk of spectrum Congress has told the FCC to auction by 2015.

Last year, the FCC granted T-Mobile special temporary authority to test mobile broadband in the 1755-1780 MHz band. In a blog post, T-Mobile indicated its belief that testing would reveal the spectrum to be ripe for LTE deployment. In the same post, T-Mobile cited the AWS-3 band at 2155-2180 MHz as a good possible pairing with the 1755-1780 MHz.